Diligence takes effort
2Peter • Sermon • Submitted
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· 17 viewsDIligence takes delibert effort but the rewards are worth it
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Don’t give up, grow up!
Don’t give up, grow up!
(insert slide: Marine Corp Boot Camp)
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the Shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
of United States Marine.
(insert my story of marine corp boot camp taking diligence)
Our christian walk takes diligence and it takes diligence to develop Christian character and the graces God makes available to us.
Do you remember the story of the persistent widow, in case lead me read it briefly
1 Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, 2 saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man.
3 “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ 4 “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man,
Lk18:3-4
5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’ ” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said;
7 now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? 8 “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
Do you want to be partakers of the divine nature of God? If so, it takes diligence, it takes effort, but don’t worry when you became a Christian or if you chose to become one, you will be fully equipped for it, given what is needed, but you will have to apply it.
3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
I enlisted in the Marine corp and it took lots of diligence to make it through boot camp, and the end result was I was called a United States Marine, but better yet was when I surrendered to God in obedience and became a child of God.
His divine power granted us everything, freedom from the corruption of this world (insert brief story of from slave to drugs/alcohol to freedman in Christ)
God grants us His precious and magnificent promises, so that we can become partakers of the divine nature! (expand briefly)
Diligence takes effort and this morning I want to look at this passage in context, open your bibles to 2Pt1-5:11 and let’s look together
I. Diligence develops character (graces)
I. Diligence develops character (graces)
5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,
7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
If you want to share in His divine nature you need to know it takes diligence.
Faith - our faith, beyond our saving faith, it is our growing faith that knows God has given us everything we need, through knowledge, true knowledge This is the faith we see in Heb11:1
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
So we have our faith and to our faith we are to add these Christian graces (characteristics)
Moral Excellence - a synonym of integrity
We need to add to our faith moral excellence, we need to be people of integrity and there is get examples in the scripture like Job
3 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.”
God gave Job integrity, acknowledged Job’s integrity and then Job was confident in his integrity too.
5 “Far be it from me that I should declare you right; Till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
From moral excellence add knowledge - true knowledge
True knowledge as noted in
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself,
true knowledge of God’s mystery - Christ (expand)
10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—
We learn having put on the new self, by being diligent, by making effort to add true knowledge.
From knowledge add Self-control - which is to control one’s self or one’s actions
(insert brief struggle here)
we need to learn to maintain self-control; and it takes diligence to do it
25 Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
and we are not left alone to our own power to do it, we are given that Holy Spirit to help us in that area and it is proved out in the fruit of the Spirit
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Self-control to perseverance - steadfastness in doing something regardless of difficulty or delay in achieving success
Perseverance goes with diligence doesn’t it. A great scripture to see the place of perseverance in the Christian character (graces)
3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;
5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.)
Perseverance to godliness - God like transformation, our maturity process
(Add in that this is a process not an event) - godliness is profitable in all things
8 for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
(expand on the promise now, and the promise to come)
Godliness to brotherly kindness and love - care, concern, compassion for each other; to have a heart like Jesus and to follow His command
Oh that may sound great, but in reality it takes diligence to do it doesn’t it? But the result of these things, these things that take diligence and effort brings the Christian to maturity and beyond the elementary things
1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
II. Diligence has its benefits
II. Diligence has its benefits
8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
If you are adding to this list of character traits, to the graces mentioned then you are being transformed and you are maturing and you increasing. You will not be useless nor unfruitful because you will know the true knowledge .
2
Knowing the true knowledge is important because if there is true knowledge then there is fake knowledge just like the fake news we hear.
10 For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
People who don’t have true knowledge have gone into the world. Look at what the scripture says about them..
7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
2Jn1:7
(expand on this you are are not for christ you are anti (against) Christ. There have been many are are many antichrists
Again, to the Christian who is growing in these graces you will never be unfruitful (expand on fruitfulness)
III. Lack of diligence leads to disaster
III. Lack of diligence leads to disaster
9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
For we forget that we are purified
21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,
1Pt1:21-22
23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.
We need to remember when and how we were purified when we obeyed the truth (expand on this)
Lest we also forget we have everything we need for life and godliness
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
We have the same saving faith that saved countless others, 3000 on one day, wouldn’t it be great to have multiple come to saving faith because of the Christian graces here that are available to us but takes diligence to apply
Here comes the application
Here comes the application
10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
Be all the more diligent
Practice these things (vv.5-7)
By doing you will know you have entrance into kingdom of heaven
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Marine corp graduation the result
(insert Marine Corp Graduation Picture here)
no longer thought like the world, thought like a marine
no longer a civilian but a United States Marine
It paid off then, and has its benefits now
Being a Christian has better benefits (lead into invitation)
(Insert invitation slide)